1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a corneal incision apparatus for incising a cornea in a layered form, and a blade case for storing a blade unit which is mounted (loaded) in and used with the corneal incision apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
As known operative procedures of corneal surgery for ablating part of a cornea by an excimer laser beam or the like, there are a LASIK (laser assisted in-situ keratomileusis) surgery wherein a flap is formed by incising a portion with a thickness of about 150 μm ranging from an epithelium to a midportion of a corneal stroma in a layered form, and an Epi-LASIK (Epithelial LASIK) surgery wherein a flap is formed by incising only an epithelium in a layered form, and others. As a device for incising a cornea in a layered form, a corneal incision apparatus called “keratome” has been used.
The corneal incision apparatus is arranged to incise a cornea in a layered form in such a manner that a suction ring (an apparatus fixing member) is fixed under suction to a portion ranging from a corneal limbus to a conjunctiva, and then a blade is caused to move in the direction of incision while being oscillated at a high speed in the direction of a blade width. The blade is preferably disposable to prevent infection or the like (it also may be reused after sterilization). Accordingly, a technique for facilitating blade replacement has been proposed (see WO 00/25711 (Domestic publication No. 2002-528226)).
Since the blade and a cutter head (a blade holder) which holds the blade are small, it is likely to take the trouble in mounting (attaching) or demounting (detaching) the blade to or from the cutter head. If an operator or an assistant accidentally drops the blade down or strikes the blade on the cutter head during a mounting (attaching) work, the blade will be contaminated or damaged and has to be sterilized or replaced again.
The technique of WO 00/25711 (Domestic publication No. 2002-528226) proposed for facilitating blade replacement is arranged to set a blade in a blade injector after taken out of a blade case storing the blade and mount (attach) the blade to a cutter head by the blade injector. Thus, there is still a risk of dropping the blade down in the process of a mounting (attaching) work (up to engagement of the blade with part of a blade oscillating mechanism in the cutter head).